I’m rewatching Mad Men and noticed something.
The pace of the creative work.
It’s slow.
There are lots of extended shots of people “working” in ways not many of us work any more.
Yes, they’re smoking and drinking up a storm.
But they’re also spending a lot of time in their thoughts.
Sitting and thinking and dreaming and wondering and scribbling.
Long, extended shots of people like Don Draper and Peggy Olson working through creative challenges while staring out windows, sitting alone in offices, and drinking alone in restaurants.
That way of working seems just as far removed from the modern world as the constant drinking and smoking in the show.
But I’m pretty sure that change isn’t one for the better.
I know the more time I spend thinking by myself, the more interesting the ideas I come up with. It’s cliche at this point to say boredom is a good thing, but it’s cliche because it’s true.
When was the last time you sat by yourself with your thoughts?
When was the last time you jotted down whatever comes to mind with a pen and paper?
When was the last time you tried to work slower instead of faster?
Maybe not everything we’ve abandoned from the Mad Men era was for the better?
PS – I wrote this sitting in an empty restaurant for 10 minutes waiting for my food. Probably a better use of my time than scrolling my LinkedIn feed again.
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